


The recognizable stranger

by Shadowdianne



Series: Prompts [13]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-30
Updated: 2015-09-15
Packaged: 2018-03-26 11:38:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 20,913
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3849517
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadowdianne/pseuds/Shadowdianne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt from tumblr by thequeenandherswan, Regina and Emma start dating before the curse breaks but after Henry appears in front of her girlfriends apartment Regina needs to face that the woman she is falling for is the so called savior that will defeat her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. First nights and sweet talks

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don’t own any characters, I’m merely writing them as they should be: Together. But I will put them where they “belong” as soon as I’m finished. Or not, who knows, I really love the brunette one...

Regina sat at the furthest stool from the door and asked for cider while trying to remain awake; it had been a really long day and a part of her wished that she still retained her magic to make the headache she had been feeling since midday disappear with a spell. Unluckily for her that wasn’t the case and so she rubbed her eyelids with a hand while trying to think about everything she still needed to do the following day before returning to Storybrooke.

It was one of the downsides of the curse, even if the city was somehow hidden to the rest of the world she still needed to take into account a few law firms and different properties that the curse had given her when they had first traveled to that realm. Contrary to their old customs she couldn’t have just a whole new set of patrimony without informing the law and so, as the years passed by and the money in those founds and lands grew steadily she had found herself forced to travel from time to time to Boston to keep everything official. The law firm that worked with her never questioned her apparently youth albeit she was used to change lawyer every few years just to be on the safe side.

Of course once Henry had arrived to her life she had found unable to travel that much and for the first few years she had needed to do less travels and more telephone calls and even if that years had been stressful she had finally set every second and fourth weekend of the month the time where all the reunions and problems were addressed and taken care off. She hated to leave Henry’s side especially now that the boy was in a difficult stage but the law firm needed her assistance and she couldn’t postpone it longer. So there she was, relying on Kathryin while drinking cider that wasn’t nearly as good as hers and trying to fight a monumental headache.

“Rough day?” A feminine voice asked at her side and for a second Regina wanted to groan both inwardly and outwardly. She wasn’t in the mood for strangers but when she took a look at the smiling blonde woman she couldn’t anything but blink, slightly taken away from the radiant beauty the woman displayed.

She would have been a princess in the Enchanted Forest Regina found herself thinking, something that left her dizzy for a second; she hadn’t thought about that place in years, and even if the blonde, pale skinned woman was truly a sight the idea of just considering her a princess because of that was completely appalling.

“And you are?” She found herself saying, a little taken back because of the blonde’s forwardness. She didn’t look like a robber but she had read enough about identity thefts to feel a little bit wary about the blonde. Not that the blonde could use hers much.

“Sorry” The green-eyed woman said with something that looked almost like a blush covering her cheeks “I didn’t want to bother you, I’m Emma, Emma Swan”

Regina nodded once before offering her hand.

“Regina Mills, yet I don’t think we have met before” She smartly added, carefully crossing her legs while taking another sip of her drink. Everything was about confidence and whatever Emma wanted from her she wasn’t going to give it without a fight. Emma was easy on the eye, that was something that she was willing to admit, so even if she still felt a little dubious about the blonde she was ready to toy a little with her. She had been the Queen, a blonde peasant was something easy if she compared to every realm she had conquered in the blink of an eye.

“I’m sure we haven’t” Emma replied while looking at her body for a second too long before returning her emerald eyes to Regina’s brown ones. “I was waiting for someone but I guess I’ve been dumped”

“And you thought that the business woman trying to kill herself with alcohol was the next best option?” Regina replied with an amused eye roll, Emma was much more easy to play with that she have expected, at this rate she was going to be bored too soon…

“Hardly” Emma replied with an amused glint on her eyes as she bended a little her body towards Regina stool. “But you looked interesting enough and ready enough to kill someone so I just thought that I could simply plan some murder with you and ask for tips”

Regina smiled at that, the corner of her lips curling as the thousands of deaths she had orchestrated flashed behind her eyelids. “If only she knew…”

“I’m sure I could give you some advice, my first would be to let them know they are going to die and then do it as painful as possible”

The blonde looked at her in what appeared to shock and Regina narrowed her eyes, silently chastising herself, too much too soon. Her fear, however, was quickly dismissed since Emma snickered a little while drinking something that appeared to be vodka.

“Damn, is this how you treat them in court? You look like one of those cold-hearted lawyers that only appear to be real in the movies”

Regina tilted her head but remained silent, carefully drinking from her now half-emptu glass of cider as the blonde looked at her expectantly.

“No? Dammit” Emma said before snapping her fingers “I would have sworn that you were one”

“And what about you Miss Swan?” Regina redirected the question while rising her glass in a mock salute “Is that you the cold hearted lawyer in the middle of the court killing their witnesses as slowly as possible with complicated questions and hidden traps?”

Emma laughed again and shook her head before answering. “Have you seen myself? Nah, I look more like the guard that hears everything while the broken marriage tried to takes everything from the other”

Regina appreciated the sight the blonde offered before returning to look at the verdant eyes. It was true that Regina was dressed less causally than Emma, her two piece suit and suitcase clashing slightly with te fitting jeans, tight blouse and leather jacket that the other woman was wearing but somehow Emma managed to dress all of that with a grace that Regina knew she wouldn’t be able to show on that clothes.

“And so” Emma quietly asked with an amused smile when she caught Regina staring at her “You didn’t answer my question”

“Neither have you” Regina replied with a wink as she finished the cider, her headache was slightly better now after the playful banter and the alcohol but she still felt a little too tired and she needed to be up first thing in the morning. “And I’m afraid I won’t told you that information so easily”

“Then I guess I could try to guess” Emma replied with a wink herself, her pink lips, much less fuller than Regina’s but incredibly enticing as she moistened them with the tip of her tongue, glistened a little under the golden glow of the bar lights and the brunette found herself shaking her head while trying to remain her usual coolness.

“A visit to Graham is in order” She thought while focusing again on Emma’s voice. The blonde, who seemed to hasn’t notice the few seconds she had been away, was now trying to say every job that she could think off in order to discover Regina’s.

“I know, what about a spy, like Mata Hari, in that suitcase of yours there is the blueprints from the ultimate doom ray…” Emma finally said eliciting a laugh from the brunette.

“You seem a little too focused on murder dear, I’m starting to fear for my life…”

“Believe me, you don’t need to worry, at my side a lamb is fierce”

Regina didn’t believe the woman but something about her made her feel relaxed and, at the same time, alive. Putting one arm over the wooden counter and bending a little towards the blonde’s face she dropped her voice an octave and purred as seductively as she could while focusing on the blown up pupils and slight change on Emma’s perspiration considering those signs a victory point.

“My my, what a waste… I was starting to like the idea of you being the hero of the day”

At Emma’s breathless snicker Regina retreated and smirked, noticing how Emma licked her lips as quickly as she could while focusing solely on her now empty drink.

“Tell you what” Emma finally said after a few more seconds of silence. “I will try to discover what you are in our next meeting”

Regina looked at the woman disbelievingly. She was past the idea that Emma was merely after her purse or her identity but the blonde surely had a nerve asking her in a date like that. Something of her thoughts must have appeared on her face because Emma sighed and bit her lower lip.

“If that’s what you want, of course”

Regina turned her head and looked through the window that connected the bar with the now considerably darker streets of Boston, her hotel was just in front of her and for a second she had the impulse to ask the blonde to go with her and just finish with what she had started. Another part, the one that wasn’t connected to her libido restrained her.

“It’s a shame that I’m not from here I’m afraid” She finally said while grabbing her suitcase that had been in the counter next to her the whole conversation and called the waiter; a young scrawny boy who took her money without being able to detangle his eyes from her chest.

Once she turned Emma offered her hand and once she took it out of COSTUMBRE the blonde slipped what appeared to be a piece of paper between her fingers.

“Then if you ever come back I would be happy to meet you and told you exactly what you are, Mrs. Mills”

“Miss” Regina replied while pocketing the paper as haughtily as she could.

Emma grinned and repeated the epithet while nodding.

“Miss Mills then, I hope to see you soon”

“We will see about that dear”

She was gone in seconds with a slightly mischievous smile still present when she crossed the road and entered in the hotel, a warm bed and a quick call to Kathryin the only things she expected.

Emma Swan had been interesting to talk to, that was what she thought when, later in night, she found herself getting drowsy. The woman wasn’t terrified of her, neither appeared to underestimate her and even if she didn’t seem particularly especial she has a flame inside that made the most irrational parts of Regina want to see the woman naked.

“It’s useless” She finally muttered as the sleep winning her over “If anything I will not see her until I come back”

Meanwhile, at the other side of town, that particular blonde was looking at the picture she had taken of Regina before she had approached her.

In the photo Regina didn’t look as witty as Emma knew she was an, smiling a little, she thought about the way the woman’s red lips had opened for a second in surprise before closing in a silent promise of a threat if. Regina was someone to be feared of, someone that, even in the surface, had something both alluring and dangerous that, like a second skin, covered her, clung to her like a perfume. It wasn’t something that normal people could understand, just feel the uneasiness of a woman made of power as the brunette approached or talked to them. But Emma… well she hadn’t even born in that realm.

She sent the photo with a short sentence attached to it “I’ve found her”.

**A/N I don’t know why but I’ve always imagined Emma drinking vodka, Regina is more cider or bourbon kind of girl…**


	2. Of reencounters and guessins

The road was wet an although the tires of her car were practically new Regina felt the few seconds in which the car didn’t turn as quick as she would have liked in the roundabout. Glancing in the rear mirror an exhaling as she saw that nothing had happened she directed the car down the road, the few drops of rain that covered the windscreen glowing softly under the hundreds of lights of the city of Boston.

She had arrived later than expected that weekend because of Henry. The boy was being difficult once again, refusing to go to Kathryin even if he had done the same hundreds of times before. Regina had hated how much the boy had cried and asked for her to keep his company and she had been about to call the firm and ask them if they couldn’t reschedule when Henry had finally relented, leaving her with an uneasiness feeling in the pit of her stomach and a bitter taste on the roof of her mouth.

The driving had been quick but due to her tardiness she had been forced to go to the meeting without passing through the hotel first and now that the meeting was over she was desperate for arriving to her room and call Henry and sleep in a cider induced dreams.

Another part of her, the tiniest part, was also telling her that she still had that blonde woman’s number and that they had promised to see each other if Regina ever appeared in Boston again. Knuckles white against the wheel she gritted her teeth at the thought of Emma Swan.

Her “meeting”, for a lack of better word, with Graham hadn’t been as pleasurable as usual and she had lost the how many time she had looked at the paper, the borders of it starting to curl because of the many times she had toyed with the little card. Emma had seeped beneath her skin, calling for her while she didn’t exactly knew why. It had been so many years since anyone had made her like this that she felt disturbingly exposed every time she thought about the woman.

“She is just a normal woman” Regina muttered to herself while finally parking the car in the hotel’s parking. As a solicitant worker helped her with her luggage she went to her purse and grabbed the paper, an idea starting to form in her mind.

* * *

 

At some other place in town Emma was seated on the sofa with her legs crossed and her little laptop on top of them. She had finished her last work and as she read once again the message she had sent to the girlfriend of the latest scumbag she had helped to catch, she found herself looking through the window and the wet streets beyond her apartment.

It had been almost half a month since she had found Regina and even if at first she had been sure that she had managed to make the other woman interested she wasn’t so sure anymore. She was getting impatient and so was the person at the other side of the phone.

She knew she had made a bold move by giving her number to the brunette instead of asking for the woman’s like she usually did but there had been something on Regina’s eyes that had made her feel inexperienced once again, like a child in an adults world. The feeling was strange but Emma found herself that she wasn’t that bothered with the lack of control.

“You are starting to sound crazy Swan” Emma chastised herself before returning her eyes to the screen. The girlfriend wasn’t going to be happy when she confirmed the suspicions that her lovely and dedicated boyfriend was just another prick so she suspected she was going to need to wait a little before knowing anything from her.

So engrossed she was that she jumped when her phone started to ring, and, after a few seconds second of doubt she glanced at the screen, trying to guess who was calling her, a hopeful smile on her lips when she saw the unknown number.

She answered the phone while putting the laptop aside. “Emma Swan” She muttered before being interrupted by a voice like silk.

“Emma? This is Mata Hari, maybe we could meet again and talk about your intentions about uncovering me”

* * *

 

Regina glanced at her watch for the third time in the same amount of minutes, she felt nervous although she didn’t understood why; she was the one with the upper hand after all. After leaving everything on her room and making a quick call to Kathryin she had finally called Emma Swan and the other woman had quickly answered her proposition with a breathy yes before asking if they could met on the same bar they had first seen each other.

Of course, Regina being the one she was had made her plan a little more complicated than just a simple phone call; when she had been Queen men and women alike had fought for her in order to keep her not only happy but amused, it had been quite interesting to see how ready they were to try to court her but the most stimulating thing had been the part in where she seduced all of them, testing their strength, their beauty, their power. Even if Emma wasn’t a noble or she wasn’t a Queen anymore the idea of playing with the blonde and test her until knowing how far the woman was ready to go with her was quite pleasant.

She was about to glance at the watch once again when Emma tapped her shoulder gently before seating in the same stool she had been seated two weekends before.

“Sorry Mata Hari, the traffic was chaotic” The blonde said with a small smirk on her lips, her eyes narrowing slightly as she took the view of Regina’s grey and sinfully fitted dress that the she was wearing. “Ok, change of plans; you aren’t a spy, how about a director of some big fashion magazine?”

Regina chuckled at that, surprised to see that apparently Emma’s interesting humor was still there.

“Flatter won’t get you anywhere dear” She said while asking for her apple cider.

“A girl can try” Emma replied, shrugging and asking for a glass of coke. “Given the traffic and the weather I think I will avoid the alcohol tonight” She said to Regina when the woman looked at her with a raised eyebrow.

The brunette nodded, slightly impressed of Emma’s apparently thoughtfulness. “So, Miss Swan, you were saying that I look like the CEO of some petty fashion magazine” She started after taking a sip of the cider, the drink was too sweet and not as cold as it should be but, resigned to drink it, she sighed, longing for her own cider.

“Judging by your response I’m going to guess that the answer is no” Emma said with an amused smile “And what about me? I could be the CEO?”

“I think you would be one of the girls on a photo shoot” The brunette replied smartly, her eyes traveling up and down Emma’s obvious trained physique. “Personal coach?”

“Nope, but thanks for saying that I could be a model” Emma said while making a mock salute towards the woman with her glass. Hopefully unknown for Regina she had tried that for a while but the fashion world was as shady as they had told her if not worse and she had lasted very little in that world made of glitter and laxatives.

“Then I’m out of the ideas for the moment” Regina replied with narrowed eyes, slightly curious of where Emma’s eyes had gone for a second. “I guess is your turn”

“Mmmm… Wedding planner?”

Regina laughed at that, unable to filter the image of Snow White’s face when she had interrupted her wedding.

“Some people could say that I have exactly what a wedding need dear, but I’m afraid that it’s not what you are looking for”

Emma hummed at the response, touching the edge of her glass with her index finger, pensively thinking of how much she could ask to be sure that her gut and suspicions were right.

Tilting her head she snapped her fingers, directing her gaze towards Regina who had been carefully sipping her cider while trying not to make a face because of the disgusting pleasure.

“What about a politician? You really look like one at least, all dressed up and ready to make things exactly how you want”

Regina laughed and nodded, carefully eyeing the blonde who was beaming at her, her emerald eyes shining with happiness as she finally guessed her right.

“I think I would miss being Mata Hari” The brunette said, dropping her voice an octave while thinking how Emma could effectively had guessed her right. The woman was better than she had thought.

“Careful dear” Her mother’s voice sounded in her head “Remember to play your part”

Emma winked at Regina as the brunette turned her full body towards her, her hands now drawing circles in front of Emma’s right arm that rested on the counter.

“You will always be Mata Hari for me if you prefer” The blonde said graciously as she looked down, Regina’s nails were impossibly close to her and yet they weren’t touching her skin, the promise of it however, being read on Regina’s eyes when Emma raised her head, making her swallow loudly.

“So” Regina said after a smirk, happy to see that she had win back the upper hand on their game “Now you know what I am you could told me what you are”

“Uh-uh I don’t think so” Emma said playfully, coughing and drinking in two big gulps the remains of her coke, feeling hotter now that Regina kept looking at her with her body so close to hers “First told me how you became a politician”

“I’m afraid that’s not material for a second date conversation dear” The brunette replied quickly, her eyes turning slightly cold for a second, confirming Emma’s suspicions.

“And what is material for a second date?” The blonde asked defiantly, her chin raised and eyes sparkling with what Regina understood as mirth but Emma felt as fear. She was pushing too much and she knew it but Regina had something that made her want to taste how much the other woman was willing to take and then double it.

“Well” Regina replied in a soft purr that the waiter- who had been listening to almost all the conversation due to the slow night he was having- couldn’t ear “You could... guess”

Regina’s lips were partially opened, the tip of her tongue visible through them as she eyed the blonde, dark playful eyes glowing under suddenly heavy eyelids. It had been too long since she had played fully to that game but seeing Emma’s obvious response in a second date in a row made her feel not only quite sure of herself but also excited. The blonde was struggling and yet there was something there that made her even more interesting.

“I could” Replied the blonde, matching the stance of Regina with only a quick glance to the lips of the brunette “But since I’ve guessed right and you still need to know what I’m I think we are playing with my rules for a little more”

Regina wanted to bare her teeth and snarl at the suddenly overconfident woman but she found herself retreating, putting her best mayoral mask in front of the one she had been having until now. The blonde knew how to play that game almost as good as she did. She had been tricked into thinking that the other woman was an easy win and it wasn’t. Interestingly, that didn’t make her rip the blonde’s heart out- Not that she could at the moment- but making her want to know how much the other woman could take even more.

“And what rules are those?” She finally asked, narrowing her eyes slightly as she drank the rest of the cider, her mouth dry.

“You are going to be in town tomorrow?”

The brunette nodded once.

“How about after you are free of your… whatever duties you have you call me and we have a third date? Those are my rules” Emma smiled cockily, hiding the sudden nervousness at the idea that she have read Regina completely wrong ant the woman was going to just told her to fuck off.

Regina, however, nodded; mentally deciding that she could arrive a little later to Storybrooke if she called Kathryn first and talked with Henry, checking that the little boy was alright.

“Very well Miss Swan, for now you can continue with your rules but” She said as she paid her drink and let the blonde do the same without a glance towards the blushing waiter “Don’t get used to it”

“I would never do that” The blonde said, accompanying Regina to the door and opening it with a flourish. “But for now you are stuck with me, Mata Hari”

Their eyes locked for a second as the bar door closed behind them but as Regina was about to play with the blonde for a little more Emma winked at her and kissed chastely her cheek before turning.

“It had been a pleasure, Miss Mills, see you tomorrow and don’t forget, my rules”

With that she was gone, leaving a surprised Regina behind who smiled a little as she entered in the hotel; it had been the first time since someone denied her what she obviously was looking for; a kiss in this case, but she had liked the way Emma had keep her distance. Almost chivalry.

“Although tomorrow I’m going to show you whose rules we are playing” She muttered as she exited the elevator and opened her room’s door.

Yes, tomorrow she would show that woman.

* * *

 

Emma was arriving at her apartment when her telephone rang; she had sent a quick message when Regina had called her hours before so, without looking at the id, she picked up the phone and answered with a curt yes.

“Yes, it’s her” She confirmed “I’ve managed to make her have another date with me tomorrow”

Another couple of words at the other end of the line, most of them laced with disappointment.

“Listen, I’ve got everything under control. She is quite interesting to talk with, nothing like you would think”

A sentence and a sigh that made Emma groan inwardly while parking her car.

“We are going to find Storybrooke but let me do this in my way; I like her so stop pushing me”

A reluctant apology later Emma nodded, satisfied with the voice at the other side of the line.

“That’s more likely, I’m going to make her talk but just let me do the job, I’m good finding people. I found you after all.”

The call was ended and Emma found herself staring at her cell “Goodnight to you too Lily”

 

**A/N The color that I imagine on Regina’s lips during this scene is one called Pandora from NYX… I don’t know why though.**


	3. Caution

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Since it’s already Monday…. What do you think about last night’s episode? Because I’m already thinking something to murder the writers slowly and painfully, just like they are doing with Emma and Regina’s characters.

Emma walked straightly towards Regina nodding at her with a playful wave that made the other woman tilt her head and prepare herself for whatever the blonde was going to do to try to unbalance her.

Morning had went too slow for the brunette tastes and she had found herself thinking about Emma a little too much as her various meetings rolled by. It was irritating and the former Queen had growled inwardly when her mind went to the fact that Graham had already proven useless to calm her carnal thirsts. She wasn’t going to go there and she refused to let Emma win, even if it was in her own mind and in a hypothetic idea. Condemning the image of a naked Emma to the darkest depths of her mind she refocused in her meetings, trying to not think about the woman and what possibly the blonde would want to do in something that was clearly very different of what they had been doing until now. The fleeting idea of leaving instead of staying to discover it  had crossed her mind but her pride refused to do that; knowing that whatever the blonde would want from her wouldn’t be much different of what she wanted given the passion-fueled looks that Emma had given her last night and the previous one. Even if the other woman had tricked her into thinking that she could win easily those looks had been real and Regina knew exactly what to do with them. Emma and she were in the same level and she hadn’t become Queen without learning a few tricks about using other’s desires to achieve her own along the way.

Decided to stay, she had called Kathryn after her last meeting informing her that she was going to arrive a little later than usual. The dark blonde woman hadn’t asked why albeit Regina could sense a tone of curiosity in her voice but she hadn’t provided any information. Smiling slightly only when Henry was put on the speaker she finished the call shortly after that.

She hadn’t changed her attire albeit she had loosened two more bottoms that she would usually do, her cleavage showing more than usual in her white crispy blouse and now that Emma’s verdant eyes glanced at it every few seconds Regina smirked, knowing that she had gained the upper hand on their date. At least for now.

“You always go like that at your meetings?” Emma asked casually as they started to walk, the blonde woman trying to look unimpressed with Regina’s power suit.

“It’s that what this is dear?” The brunette replied with a malicious smile as she glanced at the slightly taller woman from the corner of her eyes. The blonde looked flustered but Regina wanted to push everything a little further.

“I’m not exactly versed on politics” The blonde replied, making Regina look at her a little amused. They continued walking, avoiding the people that walked in the opposite direction than them.

“And what are you versed at dear?” Regina asked, her eyes narrowing as Emma replied with a little laugh, her usual cockiness returning once again.

“If I tell you what would be the point?” Her lips were parted in another smile, one that the brunette found herself responding to it.

What Regina didn’t know was that Emma was nervous, uneasy. She had done similar works through her years as a bail bondsperson. It was her gift; being able to find people and then lure them until she had them exactly where she wanted. Some people needed more work than others but that was all; she always found the one that she was looking for.

Regina was another story, the woman was intelligent, much more intelligent that Emma could even start to perceive and behind her flirtatious smile there was something that spoke of a past that Emma found herself more drawn into it. She knew what Regina had been, from where she was and maybe it was that knowledge the one that made her skin burn every time the brunette looked at her.

Coughing she refocused her eyes again on the brunette, who was now looking at her through half closed eyelids.

“You could give me a clue” The woman finally said, a trace of smirk curling her deep red colored lips. “I’m playing by your rules after all, let me have that”

Emma clicked her tongue as they kept walking, their shadows starting to grow behind them as the sun settled. Around them people kept talking, passing by, but Emma ignored everyone as she turned to look at the brunette. And then, there she felt it again, the look that Regina had given her the first night she had started talking with her; a look that spoke of how the woman seemed to understand the world and everyone on it. A look of power.

Calming down and forcing herself to remember what Lily had told her about how the woman was magic less she stared back and shook her head while smiling.

“Uh-uh, you first, are you good being a politician?”

Regina let go a puff of air as she looked at the blonde woman, she had something that made her cautious and yet, whenever they talked, there was something there that made her want to know more about her.

“Maybe” She finally said, angling her body a little more towards Emma as they kept walking “On what are you good at?”

Emma laughed at that, pleased to see that they seemed to recover the easiness of their previous encounters.

“Wouldn’t you want to know” She replied, a trace of playfulness still present on her words.

“In fact I want to” Regina said, her left brow rising as Emma kept silent for a few more seconds, her pale lips curling teasingly.

 Emma thought about the question and the possible answer she could give to the brunette, her mind reminded her that it was never a good idea to admit on what she was good at, her instinct, however, seemed to have another plans since when she opened her mouth the classic deflective response didn’t come out.

“I’m good at finding people, that’s what I do” She said, a little uncomfortable “I’m asked to find certain people and I do that”

Regina hummed at her side and didn’t said nothing for a moment as they turned into a corner and started coming back to the hotel with an unspoken decision, the sun now at their backs.

“So you are like a dog” She finally said, the glint of mischievousness returning back to her eyes, making Emma chuckle.

“You could say that” She replied “And now, what about you tell me something?”

“About?” Regina said, feigning innocence as Emma playfully growled.

“Why you are being so difficult?” The blonde asked, sighing dramatically as they kept walking.

The blonde’s uneasiness was starting to fade. Since she had found Regina there were always moments in which she forgot what she was doing and simply let herself to enjoy with the sarcasm and wittiness of the other woman.

“Because I can” Regina replied, smirking at the blonde as they turned and started to go back, the final sun rays warming their backs.

“Alright” Emma said, shrugging as the kept walking, the silence was strange but not tense and they both seemed to enjoy it for a few more minutes until Regina spoke.

“I’m the mayor of a little city” The brunette didn’t know why she was actually replying to Emma’s questions but a part of her wanted to. “It’s nothing big but I’ve been its mayor for too long so I think I can actually say that I’m good at this”

Emma chuckled and nodded, mentally preparing herself for whatever the brunette was going to say next.

“However” Regina said with the same tantalizing smile as before openly caressing Emma’s body now “I don’t think that this kind of talk is a third date material”

“You still need to tell me what it’s the material for the second date” Emma answered boldly, her voice dropping when she realized the hungry look Regina directed at her, a smirk parting her lips.

The brunette looked at the hotel, which was in front of them once again, and pointed at it with one long finger, her eyes burning holes on Emma’s body.

“You could go with me to the reception” She started “I could ask for a room, maybe even manage to keep mine for one more night”

Her voice was like silk and Emma tried her hardest not to show any emotion as Regina moved closer to her, their sides touching as they kept walking. Judging by Regina’s blew up pupils she didn’t know if she had managed to conceal her arousal about the perspective of being with the brunette beauty, her work forgotten once again.

“And then?” She managed to say, eliciting a smirk from Regina as the woman carefully put her hand on the middle of Emma’s back. It would seem an innocent gesture to whoever that could be looking at them but a complete torture for Emma who could sense the warmth of that hand through the jacket and blue button- up she was wearing.

“Then I could show you what I consider to be a real game and what I don’t” Regina kept, tracing little circles on the blonde’s back as they approached the entrance of the parking that the hotel had at one side of the main doors. “And yet…”

“Yes?” Emma croaked out when Regina’s silence dragged on.

“I want to play, to know you” The brunette admitted, her open eyes were honest but her words were laced with something else, a silent challenge that made Emma’s skin burn and hurt as if she was really being marked with those words. “I will be in Boston in two weeks, if you still want to know what’s a third date material why don’t you call me?”

And this time it was she the one who kissed the blonde’s cheeks, her supple lips lingering on the blonde’s pale skin for a second a little too long to just be a simple kiss.

“In two weeks?” Emma repeated a little dazed and Regina nodded.

“You have captured my attention dear” She said simply as she nodded graciously and turned, saying her name and room’s number to the man that was keeping the door of the parking. A few seconds later she entered, not looking back.

* * *

 

Once the blonde arrived at her house she plugged her laptop and started to search something new about Regina. The search was as fruitless as the first she had done the first night after finding her; the information that existed about Regina Mills was just enough to make her story about her life something believable outside the city of Storybrooke but not enough to make a good story. Growling, she served herself a glass of vodka and tried to call Lily, her mind racing at the same speed of her burning body after the promise Regina had muttered against her ear just before turning.

“She is dangerous” A part of her whispered warningly but she had never listened to that part as much as she should have to.

Glancing back at her phone she found that Lily had left a missed call, grabbing the devise she tried to call her friend again only to listen to Lily’s phone outside the apartment. Leaving her vodka on the kitchen counter she approached the door and opened, finding Lily with the phone still firmly clutched on her right hand and looking back at her with her dark brown eyes.

“So” She said, passing next to Emma and walking through the small corridor until she arrived to the kitchen “Tell me”

“Always so impatient” The blonde grumbled but followed her friend and sat next to her, playing with her hands as she stared at whom had been her one and only friend since she was fifteen.

When she had turned her back to Lily she had really believed that she wasn’t going to see her again. And as the months passed by and she started to know more about living on the streets the memory of the Latina girl was something that didn’t appear to be as important as it had been.

However, once she was freed she found herself using her ability to find whatever she needed to find her. Her idea was difficult; she didn’t know where she was, or if Lily still thought about her but after what had happened with Neal she found herself craving for someone. And that someone had been Lily. The Latina was now starting to live and life on her own in the middle of one of the worse neighborhoods Emma had ever seen and, at first, she had tried to send the blonde away, muttering strange things that Emma couldn’t understand.

Fortunately for Emma the young woman had finally agreed to listen to her and after grudgingly listening Emma’s story she had let the blonde stay for the night, saying that the following day Emma would need to go.

But Emma didn’t, and she neither disappeared the following day. As days passed the two girls found that their friendship, even shaky and fragile, was still there.

At first Lily had been evasive of what she had done the few years they had been apart but as months passed and Emma started to feel more like herself once again she had started to ask more and more until one night, in where Lily had been completely wasted, she had finally heard the whole story and, with that, the real truth about her parents and what both Emma and Lily were.

She hadn’t believed at first of course, magic didn’t exist, fairy tales weren’t real.

But after Lily had pointed out her almost miraculous capacity to search and find whatever she needed in that moment and calmly pointing out everything that the man who had called himself “Apprentice” had told her Emma had agreed to try to find a proof that that was true.

And so she was now, almost ten years after that talk and even if after those nothing was like it had been when both Lily and her had been barely adults Emma was still not entirely sure if what her friend had told her was true or not. A part of her doubted and just only for that part, the part in where she had parents- that still had left her, she was still there, half thinking that that curse and what she felt from Regina was real and not just a figment of her own mind and Lily’s words.

“Earth calling to Emma” Lily said, snapping her fingers in front of her, making Emma blink and focus her eyes on her friend once again.

“I think she is something more than only the Evil Queen” The title sounded odd on her ears and left a bitter taste on her tongue. Seeing how her friends seemed to be about to say something she cleared her throat and kept talking “I mean it, Lily, she didn’t tell me a single thing but she isn’t… evil”

“Are you sure you are saying that only because you want a chance with her?” Lily asked, her eyes glinting with mirth for a second and Emma laughed, a light blush covering her cheeks.

“I’m sure” She finally admitted “I’ll help you, just as I promised you but I want to know more about her”

Her friend sighed and turned, her eyes going to the large windows that showed a part of Boston, lights and the distant sea the view that waved at the Latina before the woman turned once again, looking at her friends with concerned eyes.

“You are the savior Emma, maybe after she knows about you she wants you dead”

Emma shrugged and sucked at her lower lip, her own eyes unfocusing as she recalled the way Regina had looked at her before finally turning, the promise of another date hanging between them

“It’s work” She said “And yet it isn’t. I like her Lily; I want to know more about her. Besides” She said “It’s you the one who wants to know your mother, not me, if I don’t behave like the savior I don’t need to be the savior”

Lily sighed and nodded, admitting defeat for now. Her friend had always been a very closed off person and a part of her was happy to see something on Emma’s eyes apart of apparent happiness.

“Just don’t forget that you need to be careful” She remained the blonde “We need to know where Storybrooke is to find it”

“Maybe we should just ask her” Emma muttered and Lily shook her head once before grabbing her friend’s hand between hers and squeezed them as hard as she could.

“No matter what you know about her, she was the Evil Queen. We can’t just make her told everything just with a couple a questions”

Emma nodded reluctantly, her mind already filling with something very close to remorse at the idea of keep hiding things from the brunette.

“We will do it your way” She conceded after a few more seconds of silence “But I don’t like it”


	4. Sharing tales and hiding secrets (Part 1)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A/N –Yawns- Between studying and everything I had been completely unable to edit the chapter earlier. I’m really sorry about that.  
> Anyway, the fourth installment, in this one we are going to see a little more about Regina and how she feels towards Henry. The story is settled before Henry went to Boston so I wanted to show a little of his demeanor through Regina and how that is affecting her. This Regina is going to be a little less “Evil Queen” than the previous chapters but I promise that we are still going to see her like that though the story.  
> Oh, to another note this particular chapter was going to be really long (over 6k) and I preferred to cut it in two just to have everything properly edited.   
> Ah, and if anyone here wants to talk or something you can find me in my tumblr (shadowdianne) or in my twitter (Script_SQ)  
> Anyway, enough of me, back to the story!

The first rays of the morning sun seeped through the half closed blinds as the alarm clock got off. Regina opened her eyes and yawned, feeling  her muscles burning and protesting to be up so early in the morning. The past weeks had been a completely nightmare not because the ever-sleepy city of Storybrooke but because of Henry. The boy was acting even more reserved than usual and was barely sleeping or eating properly anymore. The feeling that she wasn’t good enough from him was starting to settle inside her chest and that had occasioned that her own sleeping patterns had been completely destroyed; her ears and body perpetually ready if the boy needed her in the middle of the night.

She knew that Henry was starting to get lonely since he was the only one actually growing up in a city in which everyone else was frozen in time. That was something she could not only see but understand, but the way the boy was behaving was something that she didn’t know how to fix or make it better. Maybe she would need to talk with the bug and see if she could send Henry to him a couple of days a week. She really didn’t want to do something like that but she was starting to get worried about Henry’s health.

Biting her lip as she felt a wave of self-deprecation filling her body she sighed, knowing that she really needed to talk with her son as soon as she was able to. Blinking and removing the last bits of sleep from her eyes she turned and felt the softness of the sheets sliding off her body. At least she had slept surprisingly well that past night.

Stretching her body as much as she could her eyes finally focused on the embroidery that her sheets had, suddenly remembering that she was, in fact, in Boston once again. The brunette frowned when she felt how her mind drifted away from her son to Emma Swan. The blonde had been a constant on her thoughts lately and she felt slightly uneasy of how much time she could actually spend thinking about her,  the green eyes and cocky demeanor that the woman possessed always present on her mind. Licking her lips and checking the hour on the alarm clock she decided that it was too early to call Henry and see how he was and also too early to see if she had any new calls from Emma.

Mentally arranging her day she promised herself to call Henry in a few hours and check how he was. With that out of the way she finally got up from the hotel bed and tried not to think on the promise she had make the other woman make two weeks ago; Would she call? Or would she already be with another person? Regina wasn’t exactly naïve, she knew that even if she could be (and was) one of the best women the blonde could ever try to flirt with she was unavailable most of her time and it was a possibility that Emma had decided that two weeks of wait weren’t worth it.

That thought was one that suddenly made her uneasy;  she had played with many people in her years as Evil Queen, she had make entire kingdoms fall with only a smile and a few sentences, the promise of something was one of the best things a Queen could use.

However, the idea of being her the played, of being her the one forgotten was something that not only made her slightly angry but also sad and, realizing suddenly that she had, in fact, missed the light banter with the blonde she swallowed and went to the bathroom the hotel provided.  She felt slightly shaken up, her doubts, her feelings, were starting to make her feel unfrozen again, the ice around her melting slowly but undoubtedly. She really needed to be with Graham again. Or just call Emma and finish with what she had left unfinished two weeks ago.

As Regina entered in the shower of the hotel, still trying to discern what was the best option for her regarding Emma Swan the blonde herself was starting to open her eyes. Her mouth was filled with the aftertaste of something that wasn’t her usual drink and stretching lazily she tried to remember what had happened the night before.

Frowning and burying herself under her blankets and pillows she remembered the man she had needed to get handcuffed in a street light somewhere near two o’clock in the morning. The man hadn’t been on her best form and he had barely tried to run when she had called for his bullshit but the hours waiting with him before being able to put him under custody had been a pure nightmare once again. The aftertaste on her tongue was probably the three coffees she had drink in the precinct, trying to keep herself awake. She really hated those waits, they made her remember things that she really hated to think about.

After a few more minutes in which she started to ponder if she should go back to sleep or just start the day the alarm of her clock beeped; the screen flashing with a pre-recorded reminder she had prepared a few weeks ago. Her barely open eyes focused on the blurry lines of the message, finally reading a name that had been bouncing back and forth on her mind since the last time the woman had been in town: Regina.

The woman had been on her mind since she had declined to go with her to the hotel, her deep brown eyes calling her in her sleep every time she tried to rest. She was a little concerned since she didn’t exactly know how much her obsession with her was because of her work, the feelings she was starting to have for her aside from the obvious lust they both felt or the that prophecy that that man had told Lily about the need to be the one who needed to break the Evil Queen’s curse.

Getting up and looking ahead of her while trying to straighten the t-shirt and white briefs she was wearing she shook her head and licked her dried lips, the tang on her mouth making her wince a little.

She was helping Lily to be reunited with her mother, nothing more, nothing else. Probably the job was one of the strangest ones she had ever needed to do but her infatuation with Regina was something completely separated with both Lily and what the man had told her friend years ago. It had been years since she and Lily had had a talk about all the things the man had explained her but she could remember “fate” being mentioned quite a few times. Well, as much as magic was apparently a thing and Regina was not only the Evil Queen but the one who needed to die under her hands…. She wasn’t the savior. She was Emma Swan, an orphan, it didn’t matter how much anyone wanted to put her in another place. She had had a very difficult time back when she had been young; she had needed to do some things that she wasn’t exactly happy or proud of. But it had been her life, still was.

Regina was, first of all, an incredible woman that she wanted to know more about, and, secondly, she was Lily’s only way to find her mother. Fate wasn’t going to be one of the things she really needed or wanted to think about.

Nodding firmly to herself she walked to her living room and looked at the city under her, clutching her phone once again she  she dialed the number she already knew by heart, her thumb stilling for a second before she pressed the little green button.

The cellphone rang quite a few times at the other side and as Emma was starting to think that she was going to need to call again a sultry deep voice picked up the phone.

“Yes?” Regina’s voice asked, not sure who was at the other side of the phone.

She had just finished her shower and as wrapped in a towel as she was she had been unable to actually see who was calling her. Grapping the white and gold towel more tightly around her body she turned back to the bathroom as she talked again through her phone’s speaker, concerned that something could have happened to Henry.

“Who am I speaking with?” She asked, using her best commanding voice. That was something that made whoever was at the other side of the line make a gasp before finally revealing themselves.

“Emma, Swan, Remember me?” The blonde’s voice sounded as cocky as ever but it had a strange breathless tone that made Regina raise her brow, amused. Smirking slightly the brunette nodded to the mirror once before replying with her best voice, modulating the vowels to a deep purr just for effect.

“Emma… The name rings a bell”

At the other side of the line Emma smiled for a second.

“I was thinking that since your idea of dates conversations are by far different than mine maybe we could do something a little more boring”

“Such as?” Regina replied while applying lotion on her legs, her lips still curled in a smirk.

“What would you think of a dinner with me?” The blonde woman replied and Regina could hear the smile lacing her words even if she couldn’t actually see her.

“I think that it can be arranged”

* * *

 

Both women ended the call with identical smiles, their minds already imagining what they were going to say or do to win the next round on their never ending banter and, in Regina’s case, on how she could make the other woman interested enough to make her go with her to her suit. She wanted the woman but she still didn’t know why she had decided to wait two more weeks when she could have had her the first time she had decided to try if Emma was interested enough on her. That night she was going to have as much as she wanted from the blonde and the strange pull for her would disappear.

She had been feeling completely empty for so long that the mere idea of feeling anything else apart from her love of Henry was scaring her. The numbness was the price she had needed to pay for the curse; her feelings towards the blonde didn’t have any sense.

Looking at the mirror and applying the last touch of makeup she mentally decided to cut short the last reunion of the day to be able to get ready for the blonde before their date. “Fourth date” Her mind provided and Regina’s eyes narrowed, bothered by how her body seemed to react to the idea.

Yes, she needed to get Emma Swan off of her system. As interesting the blonde was Regina didn’t exactly want to have someone who could do such things to her so easily.

Unknown to her Emma was calling for the third time to Lily, knowing full well that her friend was going to be pissed off once she was awake since she worked mostly night-shifts. Licking her lips nervously and deciding that she needed to eat something before deciding what kind of strategy she was going to follow with Regina Mills and the details she needed to learn from her she absentmindedly called Lily again, her free hand trying to detangle the mess her hair was.

She was nervous, she realized after the fifth try, not only nervous because she was one step closer to have the information she needed but also because Regina’s words from two weeks ago were probably going to became true and, as she left the phone aside and decided that she could call Lily after her breakfast, she realized that she was especially looking forward to the dinner and what could possibly happen after that.

“You look like a teenager” She whispered under her breath as she grabbed one of the cups from the sink. “And you aren’t that anymore”

Regina seemed to be able to make her think like the girl she had once been, completely enamored by Neal. Grumbling, she sighed and started to make coffee, trying not to think neither on Neal or about what had happened after him. She was going to on a date with Regina and it was because of her job. If she enjoyed it that part of her job the least she could do was to use it and have a good time instead of dwelling in something that it didn’t matter anymore.

“That’s better” She said to herself, the coffee machine already filling her cup with a delicious black coffee.

 


	5. Sharing tales and hiding secrets (Part 2)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As I said in the previous chapter this particular scene turned way longer than what I had first written so I decided to cut the fourth chapter in two. I hope you like this one… Enjoy!

Regina looked around her, mildly impressed of where Emma had decided to take her for their first “official” date as her blonde companion had repeated quite a few times in a mockery tone.

The restaurant had the quality of a newly open one with everything shimmering from novelty. Fortunately, the place wasn’t filled with the dull colors of iron and glass that such places usually had and Regina thanked mentally Emma for her election since she found those kinds of places boring and too minimalistic for her tastes. She loved the black and white from her office on Storybrooke for example but she had been raised in a world where castles and burgundy colors had been the signature of someone with power so she really loved the discreet yet visible details of gold and purple here and there alongside with the soft lights that bathed everything in a warm light that made Emma’s hair glow like an halo around the woman’s head.

Smirking to an elderly couple that didn’t hide in the slightest their discomfort for being so close to a blatant date between two women Regina raised her right brow and nodded to the man, blowing a kiss to the woman that looked around her mid-fifties. One of the things she had found that she loved in this new realm was how easily the etiquette rules could be fooled and still look as the perfect woman she had been taught to be.

“Instructed” She muttered to herself as her mother appeared in her mind for a second; it had been years since the woman had even been on the conscious part of her mind but, apparently, Emma could also brought her back to the inferno she hoped she was. She found herself thinking a lot about the Enchanted Forest since had met the blonde.

Her sudden distress must have been sensed since their waitress appeared almost out of thin air and looked between the two women, almost expecting to be yelled by the obviously beautiful and rich couple.

“Is something wrong?” Their waitress asked with fear lacing her words. Regina smiled politely before turning her eyes away from the older couple and back to the verdant eyes of her date that was looking at her with a hint of amusement on her pupils.

Emma had seen the way Regina had behaved with their adjoined table and was trying to hide her own smirk. She had always hated the looks she had received when she had been growing up, the condescend glares, the hateful ones, the ones that screamed hypocrisy and the ones that had a hint of pity on them. Regina had been a perfect gentlewoman and, still, she had made her point without even saying anything. Impressed by it Emma bit her lower lip as the woman in front of her looked back at her, her own dark chocolate eyes glimmering with something that Emma couldn’t quite place but looked like the same amused glint Regina had sported the first time both of them had talked.

But, unlike their first talk they were actually in one of the nicest places Emma knew about. Something that made her nervous since she was more accustomed to bars and strange alleys instead of fancy restaurants. She had had works around those of course but it had been a lot since she had permitted herself to go out in an actual date with someone who expected –or deserved- a place like that. The restaurant had opened a few months ago and since she had helped the manager with a nasty job that included her niece and an exorbitant sum of money she had managed to have tables whenever she needed or wanted them. Like this night.

Emma had truly felt quite out of her element the first time she had seen Regina on the main gates of the hotel, the woman wasn’t wearing one of her powersuits anymore and a part of Emma pondered the fact that maybe Regina had already anticipated the possibility of being asked in a date by her. Since the ever mysterious woman wasn’t going to tell her Emma had resigned herself to the knowledge that Regina was a woman who knew and expected everything from everyone.

The dress the brunette was wearing was black, tight and even if it was simple it showed more than what Emma had been seeing from Regina’s body until now. A very, very nice body the blonde had caught herself thinking about even after both Regina and her had entered in her car.

After a few mocking comments about the state of her old yellow bug they had arrived to the restaurant and Emma had been regarded with an appraisal look from Regina and the wink she had received from the concierge.

Mentally thanking her idea of wearing the only tailored dress she owned once again (apart from the one she used to usually caught criminals that couldn’t see past her breasts) she shook her head to the waitress that was still looking at both of them and moved her right hand closer to Regina’s, smiling inwardly as the older man grumbled something to the woman that didn’t exactly looked to be her wife considering the fact that the man wore a ring and the woman didn’t. Mentally listing that fact somewhere in her mind Emma looked directly to Regina’s eyes and winked, making the other woman’s lips curl in amusement for a second.

“So” She started “What do you think? Right place for a date?”

“Actually” Regina replied, moving her hand away and playing with it as they both waited to be served their seconds “I think you have just jumped on a tenth date quality”

“That good?” The blonde asked and Regina couldn’t help but laugh, loving the little puppy look the normally cocky woman had in that moment.

“That good”

Her voice was terse, soft, the kind of voice she had needed to practice for hours back on her childhood home and all the times she had been screamed at because she didn’t do it to the point of perfection became worth it when Emma licked her lips absentmindedly her mind already going elsewhere.

The brunette took that few seconds to openly look at her date. She was still having doubts and problems with the blonde, not because of how kind she was but precisely because her own reactions to Emma’s forwardness. She made her feel, something that until now had been something that only Henry could do.

“Maybe the curse is becoming weaker” A voice surprisingly similar to Rumple’s whispered in the back of her mind but she doubted it. The curse would only be broken by the savior, and so far so well that particular person hadn’t even set a foot on Storybrooke or anywhere near it. She would have known it.

No, the reason was something about the woman, something that made her smile and listen to the almost endless stories the blonde told about her job or about people she had met. She was charismatic and, for a second, Regina let her reality slip away, her mind only filled with the food and Emma’s voice.

It wasn’t unpleasant or difficult, it had been so long since she had have a dinner with an adult that didn’t appear to be a mere golem or just scared to be in her presence that Regina even let herself flirt back with Emma. It was something that she had done before but never with such easiness and forwardness herself. As a queen she had been always using her own sexual energy to make her look even more powerful, even the first and second time she had been talking with the blonde she had used that particular trick, wanting to make it clear that she was completely in charge. Somewhere between her third and fourth date the need to be in charge and make it visible had completely disappeared from her mind. The need was still there but it wasn’t something that she needed to do in order to feel good.

Meanwhile, said blonde was looking at Regina while trying not to make a fool of herself, they had both been talking to each other but Regina’s eyes had gone somewhere for a couple of minutes and she didn’t know if she had said something wrong or if Regina was only mentally thinking of what else to say to her.

Somewhere deep in her brain she knew that she needed to know as much as possible about the Storybrooke and where they could start to search for it but she really preferred the reality in where both Regina and her were a normal date enjoying each other’s company.

Looking intently at Regina’s crimson lips she swallowed the remaining of her wine and sighed, at least she hoped that Regina was enjoying her company.

“Did you say something dear?” Regina finally asked, blinking and focusing on Emma once again. Emma shook her head and looked back to her now empty plate.

“I was wondering if a spy of such a huge category like you was already thinking on some top secret government thing” She finally said, adding a smile to soften the slight blow she felt she had just given the woman.

Instead of answering Regina looked down at her plate and seeing that it was also empty she left the cutlery and rested her chin on the heel of her hand.

“I could tell you but then I would need to kill you” She finally replied and both women scoffed at the bad joke.

“I see that you even had a sense of humor” Emma said with a wink and a nod to the waitress who walked towards them as fast as she could, her young eyes never leaving Emma’s green ones. She was far less scary than her date that was drop gorgeous and Annette – the waitress- felt like she needed to know her; the brunette looked as if she was a movie star of something. Maybe both of them were some kind of celebrities. Gulping down another ball of nervousness she smiled and retired her plates, nodding quickly when the blonde asked softly for the desserts.

“Indeed I have one” Regina replied after the girl was left “She looks ready to pass out” She commented, looking at the girl to make sure that Emma understood who she was talking about.

“Is probably you, the dress is gorgeous in many ways” Emma complimented and Regina smiled, looking appreciatively to Emma’s own dress.

“Yours also fits you perfectly dear” Her forwardness was met with a quick smile and a pained look from the couple at their side. They were about to finish so, paying little to no attention Regina returned her eyes and ears back to Emma’s face.

“Since you have almost mastered what is the right thing to do on a second date…”

“I think this was the tenth” Emma said and Regina rolled her eyes.

“What would you suggest me to try for dessert? She finished, mentally surprising herself. She rarely, if not ever, let anyone decide for her but Emma didn’t look like some of the royals she had needed to meet years ago.

“Oh” Emma muttered, she hadn’t clearly expected a question like that. “I’ve only eat her one of their desserts” She finally said “The coulant”

Regina then smiled politely to their attentive waitress that was just about to approach them and asked sweetly for the pastry, leaving Emma free to choose whatever the woman wanted. It was strange and yet the brunette didn’t feel forced or uncomfortable once the waitress left them alone. Something that was both strange and different from everything she had experienced (except Graham but Regina hardly ever think about him and Daniel but that was something that she didn’t want to even think about)

Emma barely talked during those few minutes, suddenly lost on Regina’s pupils who were full with something, a shadow, that made her frown. There was something else, something the woman didn’t exactly want to tell her so Emma let the moment pass, letting Regina regain her balance once again as the steaming chocolate dessert and Emma’s drink came from the hands of the still trembling waitress.

After another few seconds in which the silence seemed to be piling up Emma drank from her tonic and looked back at Regina. The woman looked normal again, a look of tease and barely contained lust dancing on her face for a second as their eyes met. They didn’t even react to the angry whispers of the elderly couple when they finally paid their dinner and left without looking back at both of them.

“So” Regina finally asked, toying with the little silver spoon she had been given to eat the dessert “Since you asked it for me… do you want some of it?”

The words were laced with an innuendo that Emma could understand and yet didn’t exactly know how she felt about it. Regina’s whole demeanor had changed drastically for one second to another and even if the woman had been perpetually sexually charged whenever they had talked she had never been so adamant to demonstrate her thoughts about Emma.

It made her feel uneasy and yet there it was something that called for Emma’s blood, like a mermaid’s call; powerful, exciting.

Little Emma knew that Regina was trying to mask the sudden feeling of terror she had experienced when she had started to think about Daniel again and what had happened before him. It had been years since those nightmares had last appeared but Emma was bringing everything back in a way that Regina couldn’t find unpleasant but disturbing. The woman was just a simple woman, one that was both interesting and funny and drop dead gorgeous. She could be a princess, which had been her first thought but it was normal, a complete normal woman from a complete normal city and yet she had a power over Regina’s mind that the woman found very difficult to resist.

So she didn’t but used what she hadn’t needed until then with the blonde; her Evil Queen persona.

It seemed it worked, at least judging by Emma’s hungry look and the way the blonde licked her lips a couple of times after her proposition of sharing the dessert and for a second she felt disappointed since the woman had been another easy prey, harder that what she had thought at first but easy nonetheless.

Until the blonde winked and, nodding, she motioned to the spoon that Regina still had firmly clutched on her right hand. Without thinking twice the brunette broke the sweet custard of the dessert, the scent of strong cacao already filling her nose as the melted interior of the pasty spilled over the white plate in which it had been served. She had never been too keen on sweets but the way it smelled made Regina look at it with almost as much hunger as Emma had been looking at her a few seconds before.

Speaking of which the blonde woman smiled and, opening her mouth just a little she took the spoon and swallowed the first bit of the chocolate cake, licking her lips and clearing them for the melted cacao that had stained them in a movement so slow and deliberate that Regina felt herself looking at Emma’s lips and lick them in response.

Suddenly all the nervousness and sudden panic seemed to melt away; like the chocolate interior of the coulant. Regina sighed and nodded towards Emma, the woman still looking intently at her as if she was just waiting for her to do the nod. With a sudden, yet nervous grin, the blonde asked for the check; leaving Regina free to eat the pastry as she finished her tonic in two big gulps.

The car seemed to go too slow for both women, both of them glancing to each other at every turn as the car approached the hotel once again. Emma could still savor the chocolate on her mouth and a part of her wondered what kind of taste the brunette at her side had on her own tongue. It was a silly question but made Emma suck her lower lip, her hands firmly grasping the steering wheel as the lights of the city passed next to them like a perpetual blur.

“Are you nervous?” She heard her own voice ask as she finally headed down the road of the hotel and after a few seconds in where the silence was her only companion she glanced quickly at Regina who was now looking at her with an odd look on her face.

The brunette didn’t exactly know how to reply to Emma’s question. She knew, they both knew, what they wanted and they fully wanted that if Emma’s reactions that nights and the previous ones were any indicator but as Emma’s words echoed in her brain a part of her felt suddenly relieved; she wanted Emma, not only because she thought that that was the only way to put the blonde out of her system but because the blonde’s body and what it promised was something Regina definitely desired and needed. The option to maybe admit that she was nervous and even say “no” suddenly crashed against her.

It hadn’t been an option when she had been younger and she now didn’t expect a no as a valid answer from Graham and yet… she could say not, she could say yes.

“If you are nervous that I’m not going to be able to perform as well as you would want” She finally said, giving her voice a hard edge that made Emma jump a little, not expecting that kind of voice from her “Fear not”

Emma smiled and laughed a little, already parking the car in front of the hotel, silently praying that nothing happened to it over the night.

“I wasn’t exactly worried about that” She finally said and as she was about to exit the car two strong hands grabbed her shoulder and made her move forward with the gear lever squeezing against her body, hot lips caressing her own, making her moan in need for more as heat started to grown inside of her, the desire curling on her clit as her whole body ached as she felt her nerves sparkling alive.

She had been right, Regina’s tongue tasted like chocolate and the wine the woman had been drinking, it was both intoxicating and just in the verge of too sweet without being that. Tangling her digits in the brunette’s short hair Emma moaned once again, making the brunette bit her lower lip. She didn’t draw blood but the blonde felt the pain lighting her closed eyelids for a second before melting away.

“Then come with me”


	6. Noisy fears

Emma opened her eyes to an absolute darkness and, as the last remaining of sleep seeped off her body she frowned; she never closed the blinders completely, it was something that she forgot to do once and again due to the ungodly hours she tended to arrive at her home.

Frowning and smacking her tongue against the roof of her mouth a few times she tried to discover what could have woke her up. A faint humming could be heard, still far but coming closer little by little to where she was. A part of her mind provided the name of what she was listening; a vacuum cleaner. Something that was also strange since her neighbors were pretty quiet almost all the time.

Grunting and rolling over she put the first pillow she could find on top of her head, realizing also that she was completely naked behind the soft sheets that really didn't appear to be their own.

Opening her eyes under the pillow she recalled what had happened the past night; the restaurant, the car and Regina's whispered words that had made her follow to the room inside the hotel. She didn't need to move to know that she was now alone but moved an arm nonetheless, feeling the soft and cold sheets under her fingertips. A faint scent covered the sheets, something else apart from the smell of sex she knew was there even if she couldn't feel it anymore; it smelled like apples and Emma chuckled, the irony not lost to her.

Rolling over once again and standing up in the soft mattress she tried to discern something in the complete darkness that covered the room, she could distinguish a few lumps that she supposed was the furniture of the room but nothing else apart from that so, moving her hand tentatively to one side, her digits found a little switch. Narrowing her eyes knowing that it was going to hurt her pupils she turn it on, nodding to herself when a soft golden glow covered the room with its light.

Planting her feet in the rug-covered floor she let the rest of the sheets to slide off her body as she tried to address what hour was. She wasn't particularly worried about Regina, the woman had already told her she needed to go early in the morning and after what had happened she supposed the brunette was going to call her once she decided to come back to Boston but she felt strangely alone.

Sighing, she tried not to think that she actually missed the brunette, she liked her but the feeling of loneliness she now felt was something that made her feel strange, it had been a long time since she had feel like that.

"Lily is going to kill me if she found what I've done" She thought, trying to change her thoughts towards something she knew how to handle.

Her eyes fell on a pile of clothing that looked her own and, with another frown, she realized that Regina would have been the one who had not only closed the blinds before leaving but also put the clothes in top of the chair in where they were now.

She smiled as she reached for her clothes, touched by those two details. As she was grabbing her underwear and trying not to think about the walk of shame she was going to do a piece of paper fell from the pile of clothes. Grabbing and unfolding it Emma found a neat handwriting waving back at her.

_Good morning Emma, the room is expected to be empty by noon so I didn't find imperative to wake you up. R._

The blonde hummed and arched a brown, the note was short and Regina didn't say anything about last night, something that made her feel slightly uneasy. Perhaps she had in fact screw everything up and not only the possibility to find where Storybrooke was but also whatever Regina and her had.

"And what is that?" A mocking voice said in the back of her mind, making Emma groan and pocket the note as forcefully as she could. The warmth she had been feeling until disappearing, a ball of anxiousness replacing it.

"Lily" She thought, remembering that her friend usually called her after her meeting with Regina wanting to know if she had already discovered something. Feeling her stomach plummeting she grabbed her phone, realizing the seven lost calls and three messages the woman had made her during the night.

"Damn" Emma mumbled, looking around her.

Ironing the wrinkles on her clothing and opening the door of the room she smiled politely to the cleaning service that was about to reach the room and fled. Knowing that Lily was going to be probably on her apartment by now, worried and ready to deny it the moment Emma entered through the door.

* * *

 

Meanwhile, already approaching Storybrooke's hidden line Regina was driving with her mind elsewhere and a stern look on her eyes.

She had woken up completely entangled around Emma, her head resting on the blonde's chest and one of her hands caressing the blonde's short curls that were still slightly damp from the last night's events.

She had needed almost two full minutes to remember everything that have happened last night as sensations were completely mixed on her mind, a pleasant ache between her legs the only tangible memory she had.

Detangling herself and looking pensively at the still sleeping blonde Regina had found herself smiling and wanting to woke her up, maybe even repeat a taste of what both of them had already done once and again during the night and the early hours of morning.

However, she knew she needed to return to Storybrooke. She was already later than usual and Henry needed her. Biting her lip and unconsciously kissing the blonde's forehead she had gone to the bathroom and had carefully applied a little bit of make up to the different marks the frantic blonde had left on her neck, smirking mischievously remembering what she herself had done to the inside of the strong thighs of the other woman.

It hadn't been until she had put everything aside and had started to write a short note for Emma when she had felt a wave of panic washing over her.

She had never done this; be with someone the morning after and feel completely at peace. When she had been younger and... That man had existed she had felt abused every time she had woken up and found him on the bed. Now with Graham she always felt sick and between the two of them she had never let anyone close enough to even think they could pass the night. And yet, there she was, kissing Emma, writing her notes, already thinking on when she was going to be able to see her again, making plans.

"What am I doing?" She thought, biting her lips and looking at the already long note she had already written; one in where she even thanked the blonde and promised much more the next time both of them see each other. She couldn't, wouldn't let anyone make her behave like this, Emma was an interesting woman, one that Regina had managed to find interesting, one that had actually been more than pleasant to be with but the feelings she was feeling were something foreign to the former Queen and she didn't want to anyone even try to become as close as Emma already was.

Pocketing the note and writing a short, impersonal one, she grabbed her suitcase and left the room, trying to not think on Emma's sleeping body or the way the blonde had been holding her.

Sighing, Regina turned in an intersection, Storybrooke less than half an hour away. She know was going to see how Henry was and Emma was going to be relegated to something that she had tried and nothing else. She couldn't afford to have feelings; she indeed couldn't have them due to the curse. Henry had been the solution to that and Emma was no one, will be no one for her.

"Liar" Her mind provided as she scolded, her memory making her recall what had actually happened last night.

 

_Regina still had Emma's blood on her mouth when the elevator doors opened and both of them went towards the brunette's room. The wound on the blonde's lips was superficial and Regina knew it would probably be healed in a few days but in that moment it made her smile, her body humming with the moan Emma had made a few minutes before because of the way she had bit her._

_Her own resolution only lasted until the door of her suit was closed and then; with a speed that she was sure Emma hadn't even anticipated, she turned and moved until Emma's back was against the closed door, her dark emerald eyes not leaving Regina's, a smirk on her normally pale lips. A splotch of red due to the wound made her look innocent, corruptible even and the part of Regina that was still the evil queen roared, ravenous for another taste._

_"I'm here" Emma whispered, her hands starting to touch Regina's neck, feather touches that made the brunette shudder, making her come back to Emma and what they both were doing "Now what?"_

_Regina hadn't expected the wave of deep arousal she was now immersed in, she had thought about playing, teasing the blonde's obviously fit body until she didn't want more. But now that she could have much more that had first anticipated everything changed. Raising her right hand she moved it until it was on top of the blonde's heart. She couldn't take a heart there, in that realm. She had already thought about it and actually tried it on Snow's prince. But the way the heart beat against the blonde's ribcage and the wonderful feeling of power she felt in that moment made her smirk, feeling herself once again. Digging her nails slightly on Emma's covered chest she moved forward, her bodies now completely flushed against each other and bit Emma's chin, a playfully glare on her eyes._

_"Now enjoy" She whispered, her voice husk, deep. She knew what she wanted and she was adamant to have exactly what she needed so, with her right hand still on Emma's chest and between her bodies, she moved the other one up to the blonde's strong body, kneading the flesh and muscles she found, making Emma moan and try to kiss her instead of the other way around._

_But Regina didn't let her._

_Instead, she continued kissing the woman's pale body, sucking on the pulsing point and going up, licking and nibbling Emma's right earlobe and smirking when she heard the way Emma's voice cracked once her wandering hand finally started to tease her hips._

_"Sensitive?" She asked, not bothering on specifying, knowing that Emma already knew what she was talking about. A soft nod was her only answer and she bit the lobe again, making Emma groan, the blonde's hands limp against her body._

_Regina wanted more, everything in fact, and so she kept kissing, nibbling, taking all the time she wanted and not an ounce on her own aching body, on the way her breasts and sex tingled._

_"Let me" Emma finally said as Regina's lips were again close to her own. The blonde's words were almost a mere puff of air but Regina heard them, felt them against her body. She felt again the strange wave of yearning she had been feeling on the dinner and shuddered._

_She felt tempted to say no but her lips were already muttering a yes, a yes that turned into a moan when, two strong arms lift her at the same time Emma moved, changing her positions and making Regina be the one who had her back against the door, her dress completely riled up as she clenched her thighs against Emma's waist, the blonde's hands teasing her breasts over her clothing, making her want more as Emma kissed her deeply, caressing with her tongue every inch of Regina's mouth._

_"More" She heard her voice, broken and ragged saying  once Emma started to leave open mouthed kissed on her neck, sucking to the point of pain, making her shudder and knead the blonde's nape._

_Emma chuckled breathlessly, her hands never rough but gentle on the brunette's chest, her teeth grazing Regina's skin over and over again._

_Her sex throbbed as Emma walked and let her on the floor once again, letting Regina be the attacker, moaning once the shorter woman pushed her until they both fell into the mattress, frantic hands and teeth disrobing Emma from the dress she was wearing and the panties and bra she had decided to wear. Soon enough they were both completely naked, dark pupils still boring holes on Emma's neck while she kept kissing her, devouring every breathy word the blonde said, Emma's own nails writing red lines on Regina's back, making Regina undulate her body against the blonde one, making her want even more from the other woman._

 

Regina came back to her senses once she crossed the magic barrier, a slight change in the air signaling the point where she entered in the space she had created around the invisible town.

She had took as much from Emma as the blonde as taken from her and that was something that actually made her smile a little, remembering the many times she had made the other woman shudder and come on her mouth, hands and body, sex and sweat mingling in a vortex in where she had felt both Queen and peasant, both powerful and powerless in a game she had yet to discover under what rules Emma played.

But it had been the way she had woken up what had made her feel completely terrified and what still had her worried. She couldn't feel, she had given up that in order to her happy ending and Emma had made her feel much more she had ever experienced with a few words and sex her body was already missing.

"Emma is normal" Her mind whispered "It's only a woman that don't want anything from you, you are safe now, you are in a world where no one can hurt you, you are strong"

She shook her head, her fears were stupid, unfounded, she even didn't know exactly what those fears were about but still her left hand found her phone and, at the same time she entered in Storybrooke, the sleepy town as quiet as ever, Sidney answered her with the same trembling voice she had despised the first time she had met him.

"Yes" She said, as she fought against a pang of remorse that made her clench her jaw "I want you to tell me everything that you can find from this woman"


	7. Bits and pieces

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nope, I didn’t forget about this story, just life and exams :P But now I’m here again I hope you all like this little chapter.

Emma fiddled with her pendant as she glanced at her watch once again. The sun was slowly setting and the already soft light was dimming, making the shadows inside her apartment grow exponentially

She should have been working that night but her last client had called and cancelled the deal so she now had the whole night for herself and her nerves.

Sighing and biting her lower lip she thought again on a particular note. One that had been on her mind for the last past two weeks. At first she had been dumbfounded but as time passed she had already started to feel angered by the way the brunette had fled the place without even saying goodbye. The anger had slowly morphed in regret though and now, more often than not, Emma found herself thinking if Lily had been right when she had told her the stupidity of what she was doing with Regina.

Lily was the other side of her problems and as she went and poured a glass of orange juice before mixing it with vodka she thought again on the conversation she had had with Lily the same day Regina had go without a proper note.

* * *

 

The woman had been furious when she had finally entered the place, her eyes had even flashed for a second like Emma had first seen when Lily had helped her back in their street days; the brunette’s eyes had glowed before settling down in their normal brown color making Emma thought about who her friend’s mother was and what exactly they both were trying to find.

“I was worried” Lily had finally said once she had managed to control her rage. She had been waiting Emma seated on the blonde’s couch and when the woman went straight to the open kitchen and drank a big gulp of water straight from the bottle she kept on fridge she frowned for a second before she noticing the marks that the blonde sported on her exposed neck. “Emma”

Her voice was colder and more impersonal than before and the blonde had sighed before turning and facing her friend.

“Listen” She started but Lily had stood as tall as she was and had approached her in three big steps making Emma look at her friend’s pupils who seemed to hold something in them; just below their surface. Swallowing quickly Emma thought about the first time she had shown that particularity of her friends and how she had dismissed as the light tricking her. Years later, when Lily had been explaining the truth to her, Emma had remembered the way a Lily’s eyes always seemed to shimmer under especial circumstances. The truth had made her friend realize what Emma hadn’t; she was able to see. To see the charms and masks everyone wore, even the ones that people didn’t know they wore; like Lily’s.

That was Emma’s superpower of sorts and she had been using it ever since. That had been one of the things she had used to find Regina and that was the thing that was telling her that Lily was at the point of breaking down.

“I messed up” She had finally admitted, sighing and moving to her friends left, effectively making Lily blink and calm enough to process her words.

“Yes” Her friend replied, her voice cutting the air between them in a way that had made Emma clench her jaw and turn towards her, her hands closing at her sides until they were two tight fists.

“Don’t start” She tried to say but Lily was already talking, muffling Emma’s voice with her own.

“I told you that you were going to mess this up, the only thing we needed from her was Storybrooke’s location. Nothing else, nothing more and you…”

“And me what?” A thunder was heard but neither of them paid attention to it as Emma moved a step closer towards Lily, the two of them now in the middle of the little kitchen. The brunette looked at her with a defiant look on her eyes that made Emma’s rage grow as well as her shame. “Lily, I’m helping you to reach Storybrooke, I’ve been helping you since you told me the whole story. Even if I have my doubts”

“How…” Lily started but Emma was already feeling the hurt slowly transforming into guilt and she wanted to be left alone so, raising her voice as much as she could without turning it into a full scream she lowered her head and looked at her friend straight in the eye while her traitorous mind went to the brown pupils of Regina’s. Pupils that glowed with something completely different than what Lily’s did.

“I’ve been helping you and I think you should remember that I’ve been with you all these years even after what you did”

“I thought that didn’t matter anymore” The brunette replied, her lips opening in a snarl that Emma reciprocated. That was the thing between Lily and her, the good and the bad, the opposites always being drawn into each other’s presence and not precisely for their best.

“It matters” Emma replied “When you are constantly telling me what I need to do.”

Lily had left shortly after that and as Emma drank her second glass of water she sunk on her sofa and rubbed her left temple with her free hand while trying to forget that particular moment.

She had lost her nerves, she could say as much, but what she had told Lily was true and that was the reason neither of them wanted to talk about the discussion.

Back at the present she sighed and looked at the phone that laid on the coffee table.

Truth was, she thought as her left hand started to run circles on the edge of the glass she had been holding, she felt guiltiness alongside with the anger she also felt.

She hadn’t been sincere with the brunette, not even when she had claimed that she was and while the woman who had been once a Queen had eyed her suspiciously she had finally let Emma in. Something that, being who she was and having seen what she had, the blonde knew that it wasn’t exactly easy.

Even if what she was doing for Lily turned out to be a delusion she had still would need to come clean to Regina and maybe, just maybe, she felt relieved that the brunette hadn’t called her yet since it was easier to feel rage than guilt.

Groaning she put the glass away and pinched the bridge of her nose while thinking about Regina.

She liked the woman; Regina had that “something” that Emma had found lacking in the rest of what Lily would say “dates” after her time on jail.

“Remember that she is the Evil Queen” Lily had said just before exiting through her door, her stance fierce for a second as Emma glared at her.

To be realistic of them knew the real other as much as they claimed and while at least Regina hadn’t even try to cover her lack of past with lies she hadn’t been too talkative either. And Emma herself wasn’t especially innocent in that department.

Scratching the back of her neck Emma stood and grabbed the phone, her green eyes fixed on the screen while her mind went through the combination of numbers she already knew by heart.

Meanwhile, in Storybrooke, Regina was eyeing in her bedroom eyeing her luggage while thinking on Henry and the way the little boy had looked at her less than an hour ago when she had left him at Nolan’s house.

Their relationship was deteriorating quickly and every time she tried to reach for him the boy seemed to slip away. The whole adoption talk hadn’t gone as well as she would have liked and whereas she knew that she may have not hold the situation like it required she felt frustrated because of Henry’s irrationality. One she could understand but not work with. Sighing and touching briefly Daniel’s ring she suddenly remembered the reason she still was looking at her luggage instead of already driving towards Boston.

Circling her bed and fumbling with a manila folder she had had prepared for the trip she shook her head once; the reason of her delay hadn’t abandoned her mind, not even when she had been thinking about Henry but Emma, her mere presence on her mind, was something that scared her to no end.

Turning and putting the folder inside her still open luggage she raised one brow as her mind transported her again to the short morning both the blonde and herself had shared two weeks ago.

Maybe, a part of her mind whispered, you fear how she made you felt.

She touched her chest out of habit; the hole inside her chest had always felt colder to her whenever she was inside the city limits and even if Henry’s appearance had helped with it the blonde strange woman had been having the same effects on Regina. But stronger. Even thinking about her made the whole warmer in a way that the brunette couldn’t and didn’t exactly want to understand.

Glancing at the clock, which kept pointing at the already late hour, she sighed and thought about cancelling her trip, it wasn’t as if she couldn’t postpone it and maybe a few days away from Emma Swan would clear her mind.

The folder Sidney had given her was still firmly closed since the former queen had found herself unable to make herself open it after the shy man had given it to her. Feeling exhausted of the game her body and mind seem to be playing with her the brunette had been close to put the folder somewhere else away from her.

Finally she had decided to keep it; she was being paranoid and she knew it; Emma was just a normal human being that, like any other, would walk away from Regina’s life one way or another.

Frowning and ironing her tight fitting purple dress she returned to the open suitcase while still thinking what would be the right thing to do with her doubts and her strange feelings regarding a particular blonde. Her musing however were interrupted by the sound of her cellphone and, fearing that it could be from Kathryn, she picked it on without glancing at the ID.

“Hi”

The word alone made Regina’s heart beat faster for a second once she realized who she was talking with but adamant to not let anything show up and starting to feel the doubts about if she had done the right thing by leaving the younger woman behind like that in the hotel she swallowed and refused to say anything else but a muffled “Hello”

The silence stretched for a few more seconds until Emma spoke again, this time her voice even softer than before but with a hard edge that made Regina’s uneasiness grown.

“Are you… here? In Boston I mean”

“I will be there soon” Regina finally admitted, her free hand playing with Daniel’s ring as flashes of what both Emma and her had done a couple of weeks before. That was something that she hadn’t regretted, even if Daniel never left her mind.

The silence took over the conversation all over again and as the seconds turned into minutes Regina found herself thinking again on the way she had left the hotel room. The panic was still there as well as the doubts she had felt back that morning when the glow of the morning after had receded enough. But in that moment, with Emma at the other side the brunette realized that strange enough she wanted to ask for forgiveness.

Angry with herself and trying to coax her usual cold demeanor she found herself opening her mouth and muttering a quick, soft “I’m sorry” that went almost unnoticeable by Emma.

Almost but the blonde at the other side smiled a little and felt her stiffness easing a little. Even if she still needed to talk with Regina things she still didn’t know how to say them or even if she was going to uncover everything like that Regina’s apology made her breath a little better.

“Would you want to come to another date?”

Both women waited, Emma for Regina to respond, Regina for the words to come. She wanted to see the blonde again but she first wanted also to be able to read the report Sidney had made from the younger woman. Even if only eased some of her worries.

“I will be busy” She finally said, her voice sounding unconvincing even to her and for a second she trembled, thinking when she had started to be unable to lie convincingly to the other woman.

“City work?” Emma asked, biting her thumb nail and fighting against herself to not ask about what Regina was going to do.

“Yes” The answer was short and the usual purring velvety sound Regina usually produced was gone, making Emma think again about the short note she had found on the room and if she had really blown up all her options with the brunette for something that she may have done that night.

“I will be free” She finally said, her whole body slouched on the sofa, her free hand now ruffling her own hair while trying to not sound too desperate. She needed to know where Storybrooke was and, more importantly, she wanted to see Regina again. “If you ever want to see me tomorrow just call me yes?”

Regina sighed quietly to herself before answering with a swift yes that effectively ended the conversation with both women looking at the screens of their phones thinking about what it had just happened.

For Emma everything was like a mix of being a teenager and being lost between Lily’s opinions and her own screaming at the same time inside her mind. The problem was, she thought as she played with the hem of her shirt, that even if she wanted to help her friend a part of her still doubted about what Lily had told her all those years ago. Even if bits and pieces of what Lily had told her looked real enough.

The other part was Regina and the obvious mystery that surrounded her; the brunette didn’t have any kind of records, she had enough information to look authentic but digging a little bit deeper Regina Mills turned out to be a stranger.

“Who are you?” She thought while touching her neck where the love bits had been visible until half a week before.

Regina finished doing her suitcase and minutes after the call she was already on the road and leaving behind Storybrooke’s profile. The manila folder now resting on the top of her bed; far away from Regina’s prying eyes.

“I don’t know what I’m doing” The brunette thought as the car ate the distance between the two cities.

Trust someone, she guessed, even if she didn’t exactly do that very well.


	8. An invitation

_(Four weeks ago)_

_Regina finished doing her suitcase and minutes after the call she was already on the road and leaving behind Storybrooke’s profile. The manila folder now resting on the top of her bed; far away from Regina’s prying eyes._

_“I don’t know what I’m doing” The brunette thought as the car ate the distance between the two cities._

_Trust someone, she guessed, even if she wasn’t very good at that._

(Present)

In a particular house in the middle of Mifflin Street distant screams could be heard making Pongo, a beautiful Dalmatian, jerk up his ears when the local therapist  crossed the street in the general direction of the city’s only dinner grabbing his leash tightly due to his haste to grab the day’s special.

Inside the house the screams however, weren’t distant or muffled and Regina finally sighed, letting Henry cross the hall up to the stairs towards his room with tears falling down his cheeks.

The relationship with the ten-year old boy was getting worse and as the former queen mentally sighed she could hear the scream that had pierced the, until then, calm morning. “You are evil”

The epithet could be considered correct but the way Henry had said it, like he truly believed it, had been what had hurt the woman the worst. Sighing and pinching the bridge of her nose the brunette glanced at her wristwatch, mentally calculating how much time she still had to let Henry be on her own before telling him he needed to start readying himself for the usual trip towards Kathryn’s house.

Every time she crossed the city limits she felt guilty of leaving Henry behind but the way the boy was behaving was making everything even more complicated for her, and for him. Archie’s therapy was something she had been deliberating for days now and considering the way she had caught Henry a few hours before talking and mumbling something about Snow White, Prince Charming and happy endings she was in the verge of having a meltdown herself. She couldn’t let the boy harvest those kind of thoughts. The curse was still intact, still in place. And it was precisely to ensure Regina’s own happy ending, the one fate had refused to give her all those years ago.

And Henry… he would understand. Hopefully.

Biting her lip she thought again on the blonde woman that was going to be waiting for her on Boston, far away for the problems that seemed to be growing inside her own household.

After their encounter on Boston, four weeks ago, Regina had decided to drop the information Sidney had gathered, not entirely sure of why but not wanting to know more about the blonde. Her fears had been dulled by the fact of how said woman had greeted her once she had spotted her on the usual stool on the bar they have first met. And whereas the fear was still there, lurking in the shadows of her own mind, their… relationship, if they could call it that, was slowly becoming something easier for Regina. Even if Daniel and Leopold still kept appearing on her mind from time to time.

Playing with the ring of her ex-fiancé he picked up the phone when the device started to rang, coffee already cold on the kitchen table.

“I wasn’t expecting you so early” She said, a smirk on her place and the previous worries being pushed aside for a second.

At the other side of the line Emma Swan smiled, green eyes twinkling as she shrugged at her own reflection. It was already public knowledge the fact that she hated mornings and so she chuckled a little at Regina’s joke as she drank her usual morning juice.

“Good morning to you too Mrs. Important” She replied, taunting the woman at the other side of the line with a smirk that could be heard through her words. “Would you have preferred another boring morning without me?”

The blonde could almost see the way Regina rolled her eyes at her comment but she kept the smile, drinking the last drops of her juice and moving the glass aside, her eyes now focusing on the city in front of her like usually did every morning.

“Are you going to come today?” She asked, trying to sound nonchalantly about the answer of the question even if she felt quite nervous about it.

At the other side of the magical barrier Regina hummed and pretended to think even with the smile on its place. “I will be there” She finally answered, smiling and quieting down the normal fear that always appeared whenever she thought about Emma and the way the woman made her feel.

“Excellent” She could hear “I will let you grab the kid then”

The line went dead, leaving Regina looking at her phone for a second before going up the stairs, mentally trying to steel herself.

She was still in constant doubts of where she stood with Emma, if she stood somewhere at all. The way her mind had reacted the first time they had been together had still keep nagging her every time the blonde kissed her or she let her kiss her and whereas the constrictive feeling wasn’t as strong as it had once been it appeared randomly every time they were together.

However, she thought as she climbed the stairs and looked at Henry’s closed door, things were slowly getting better between the blonde and herself and she was even starting to consider the possibility of trying something, as short lived as that could be, with her.

In Boston a particular blonde was already reading herself for the many things she still needed to do before her encounter with a certain brunette. Looking at her phone and finding new unread messages of Lily had made her sigh and wonder about her friend. After their last discussion four weeks ago neither her nor she had tried to talk about it once again and whereas Lily still tried to get in touch via messages Emma had stopped informing her about her dates with Regina.

The brunette was a fascinating woman, Evil Queen or not, and Emma certainly hadn’t seen the so called evilness the woman theoretically possessed, not even the tiniest bit. Blinking and looking away from the device she tried to think again on the fact that her 28th birthday was approaching quickly. After the years where she had been a runaway that year was going to be first one without Lily at her side to celebrate it. It was surely going to be strange and as the usual feeling of loneliness started to crawl up her spine she thought about Regina again.

The woman was surely a complicated one, and between her own past Emma hadn’t exactly tried to make the brunette told her her own past. She had long ago stopped to think about her as another job after all. She still… wondered though. Wondered about her, about what she had done, about the fact that if Lily had been right the woman that looked snarky and sweet while being a good, protective mother, would also been a mass murderer. Not exactly a flattering feature.

Biting her bottom lip and closing her apartment door behind her she glanced briefly to the words that were scribbled in it.

You are going to get hurt, a part of her murmured, thing was; How much?

* * *

 

The wheels of an already easily recognizable car scrapped the concrete floor making the blonde waiting on the main door of her building apartment want to smile a little at the annoying looking brunette that emerged from it.

“Bad reunion?” Emma guessed, making Regina growl at that, internally desiring to have her powers back only to be able to show her opinions to the lawyers she had just interviewed.

“You could say that” She finally answered, letting Emma peck her on the lips before walking inside the place, smiling slightly at the blonde who offered her a lopsided smile.

“Don’t worry, you well make them pay Miss Mata Hari”

The joke was enough to make the brunette remember one of the things she had wanted to discuss with the blonde and so while Emma finally opened the door of her apartment and letting the brunette enter by making a mocking bow, Regina cleared her throat, suddenly feeling nervous.

“I don’t know if I’m going to be able to come next week”

The words hung between the two of them Emma humming and tapping her nails against the kitchen island when they crossed the hall room.

“Is the boy alright?” She finally asked, tilting her head towards the brunette who was glancing at her.

Regina’s lips curved in what looked like a smirk without actually turning into one. “He is being complicated and I… doubt that I’ve been able to come”

Neither of them said anything after that, Emma knew Regina well enough already to know that the woman was merely informing her since the two of them had already talked about the next week, about what it meant.

“If you ever want to come” She finally said “I will have work that night but I would wait if you want”

Regina, already smiling, moved closer towards her and pecked her on her lips, glancing sideways towards the bedroom of the blonde woman.

“I will see what I can do”

**a/n And so we are finally approaching Emma’s birthday, Henry’s appearance and… I haven’t forgotten about Lily, don’t worry Xd**

**I’ve also managed to organize the rest of the story so if nothing happens the story will have four or five chapters plus the epilogue if I ever do one. Thanks for reading ;)**


	9. Deja Vu

**Edit: Apparently my new pc is feeling a little bit frisky and is rewriting English with words on Spanish since it seems it cannot process that I write more English than Spanish anyway xd I’ve rewritten a few things that I didn’t realize when I posted this that were either on Spanish or the corrector had turned into something impossible to understand. Sorry for the mistakes -.- I hope I've fixed everything but in case anything new comes up... well, I will need a few days to accustom myself to the new programs I'm using ^^''**

Deja vu

Emma sighed as she entered in her apartment, a feeling of disappointment washing over her as she took notice on the empty space. She was starting to feel tired of her job, of the things she needed to do and as she took off the high heels she had been wearing and stretched her neck she thought again on how quick the week had seemed to pass; the night she had been talking with Regina feeling as if it had only been a few hours before.

They hadn’t talked much after the brunette weak promise and Emma hadn’t insisted as the week started to roll by; she had had a lot of things to think about after all, many of them regarding precisely a particular brunette.

For as long as she could remember she had always hated the lies that people tended to say around her “you will be adopted” “we love you”, weak words that pretended to be true but weren’t. When she had agreed with Lily to find her mother she had done that in order to keep close to the only woman that, even if it had lied to her, she had also learnt her lesson of being completely straightforward with her. Lily was the constant reminder of a life Emma hated but also accepted as a part of who she was and so being angry with the other woman’s wasn’t precisely easy for her.

She had never believed in magic, not even as a small child and the story that Lily had told her when they had reencountered was more like an illusion and the proof that her old friend was clearly nuts than anything else. And maybe because of the friendship they both had had Emma had agreed with her to try to help her. She didn’t exactly remember the time she had started to belief that that story could be a possibility though, her skepticism turning into something close to acceptance. It had been precisely that acceptance the one that had make her drive mindlessly through Boston as she entered in a bar, her sixth sense telling her to wait and see. It had been that same sense the one that had told her who Regina was and even if a part of her rational mind whispered to her that she was as crazy as Lily another part of her knew that that night something had happened that she couldn’t even start to explain about.

Maybe that was that the reason why she couldn’t make herself keep lying to Regina, the farce was already too deep and she knew that telling the brunette the truth would probably mean the end of whatever thing they were starting to have but she couldn’t keep going, even if that also meant losing Lily’s faith completely.

Lily… sighing she closed her eyes and shook her head, she was also missing her. Too much.

Picking up the little muffin and looking at the candle she had bought she almost wanted to snort at the little blue start that looked back at her, stubbornly. She had held hope that maybe Regina, or Lily, would come, apparently she hadn’t had such luck. Closing her eyes she thought again on the wish she had been wishing for since she had been old enough to create the words on her head. She didn’t wanted to find her parents per se anymore though, that was the difference between the girl and the woman, she only wanted to feel welcomed and a last thought of Regina passed through her mind. She was falling in love with her, as strange as their first met and consequently the dates they had had after that had been.

Damn it.

Someone knocked at the door waking her up from her reverie and for a second Emma swallowed, wanting to think that, maybe, at the other side of the door there was one of the two brunettes she had been thinking about.

It was a boy, a little boy not older than ten looking at her with big eyes that made her tremble for a second.

“I’m Henry” He answered easily with something close to a smirk. “And I’m your son”

* * *

Regina took one of the last curves towards Emma’s apartment, her mind completely elsewhere. She had been thinking about Emma’s birthday almost the whole week, unsure of what to do about it not only because of the complicated situation with Henry but also for herself. She had finally decided to come though, leaving an eerily calm and well-mannered Henry under the care of Kathryn once again. The boy had seemed less angry that week and so she had decided to give it a try and take the car. She was still unsure though and she battled with herself almost the whole drive as she approached Boston.

That week she didn’t have a reunion so everything went much more quicker than what she would normally do even if she drove a little bit slower than she would do due to the anxiety she felt and as she saw the complex where the blonde lived she found herself biting her bottom lip, feeling even more nervous at the thought of Emma being there.

Parking the car she looked at the apartment complex; something had definitely changed since the first day Emma and her had first met, something she couldn’t exactly explain and as the weeks and dates had started to pile up she had found herself without arguments to battle against her will to give it a try to whatever kind of relationship both Emma and her would be able to commit. And so there she was.

Grabbing her purse and looking at her reflection on the rear mirror of her car she exited, glancing at the vehicle one more time before entering. Her heels clacked as she walked towards the elevator, her eyes focused solely on the numbers. Once the elevator’s door opened she exited to the corridor finding Emma’s door slightly open and with light coming out of it, the sound of two voices floating towards where she was standing.

Frowning, she approached the opened door, unsure of what to do. Emma had told her that she would be alone and for a second she felt rage starting to grow inside of her, the woman she had been once surfacing for a second. Then, as she was about to enter inside the place she recognized one of the voices.

The boy was seated in front of Emma with a glass of orange juice in the counter in front of him and that look of startled anger he seemed to have fixed on his face whenever he looked at her nowadays when she finally entered, standing in the middle of the corridor in direction of the light up kitchen a few meters ahead of her, unable to say something.

“Mom?” The boy asked, confused, and for a second the brunette woman melted, the epithet being one Henry hadn’t used in what seemed to be an eternity. “What are you doing here?”

Regina looked back at Emma who was biting her lips, her hands resting on the table where a muffin and a forgotten candle laid alongside with a beer bottle.

“He knocked the door” The blonde offered weakly, Regina’s confusion growing.

“She must have followed me” Henry interrupted, pointing at Regina who closed the door behind her and closed the distance between her and the other two, confusion still written on her face.

“I didn’t” She managed to say. Taking a big gulp of air she looked at her son’s eyes, realizing the way he seemed to clutch a thick book between his arms, a stubborn glow shimmering on his eyes. “What are you doing here Henry?”

She was afraid, afraid of the explanations she probably would need to give not only to the boy but to Emma who had met her son, something she hadn’t wanted to happen. Yet at least.

“Finding my real mom” The boy replied gritting his teeth, his voice breaking a little at the end of the statement.

And that was when it hit Regina; Emma’s guilty stares and dumbfounded expression when she had entered the apartment. Turning, she swallowed before trying to look at Emma.

“You are Henry’s birthmother?”

“And you are the evil queen”

**Edit 2: Having the reference of a little question I’ve been asked via pm on ff.net; I know that the last sentence is a little bit ambiguous of who is actually saying it. It’s something I did on purpose so don’t worry, that part of the dialogue will be addressed in the 10 th chapter ;)**

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